TN teachers' training to be made online from this year

CHENNAI: For the first time, the Tamil Nadu government has decided that various training for the newly appointed and existing teachers would be given online from this year.

The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), under the School Education Department's move to give training online against the backdrop of lack of proper infrastructure for physical training.

Citing out the issues, which was faced currently in teacher's training programmes, a senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that currently, the training (physical) is being conducted at few places and teachers have to travel long distances to attend it.

"In addition, since most trainees were women, they also face some logistical issues", he said adding "similarly, school classes were affected for the students if the existing teachers go out of station to get training".

Stating that there were no alternative persons available to take classes instead of teachers, who undergo training, the official said that there were several suggestions from various stakeholders that the teachers training could be conducted in each district to avoid long distance travel by trainees.

"Taking into consideration in the improvement in technology, it was decided to give online at least 75% online training to the teachers", he said adding "since all the high and higher secondary government schools have at least between ten and 20 computers in its high-tech labs and therefore, it was decided to utilise those labs for giving online training".

Pointing out that more than 7,000 primary government and middle schools are expected to get 100 Mbps broadband internet connections, he said "at the same time, more than 22,000 primary schools will also get smart classes very soon and considering all these technology aspects, the teachers training could be conducted in all the districts".